Return a custom cell from cellForRowAtIndexPath:

Question

I ran into a trouble and I'm looking for help. I need to save a identifier in a cell, so I did a subclass of UITableViewCell and added to it the identifier property. In my view controller I create the cells as follow: ``` - (SidebarCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { UITableViewCell* tableViewCell = [super tableView:tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath]; SidebarCell * cell = (SidebarCell *)tableViewCell; Category *category = [categoryDataController.categories objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]; cell.textLabel.text = category.name; if (category.checked == 1) { cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryCheckmark; } else { cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryNone; } return cell; } ``` The problem is that when I select one of the cells, the method cellForRowAtIndexPath: returns an UTableViewCell object instead of a SidebarCell, so I don't have access to the identifier property: ``` - (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView…

Accepted Answer

You should leave the `tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath:` method signature intact: it should return (UITableViewCell *) and not your custom cell class. Since your `SidebarCell` is a subclass of `UITableViewCell`, it should all "just work". No need to call `super` or any of that:

```
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    SidebarCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"CellIdentifier"];
    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[SidebarCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault
                                  reuseIdentifier:@"CellIdentifier@"];
    }
    // ... set up the cell here ...
    return cell;
}
```

In other methods, the cast should work just as you have it:

```
SidebarCell *cell = (SidebarCell *)[tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
```

Return a custom cell from cellForRowAtIndexPath:

Solution

Problem